Uncomfortable Truth

Number 35:34 Do not defile the land where you live and
where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.

     One of the uncomfortable truths about the Christian faith is that we believe that the LORD lives among us. He is not distant, having started the project, given it the ability to keep going and then went to the spa for a time of relaxation. Instead, the message of the Scriptures from beginning to end is that the LORD's intention has always been to live with His people. 

     It started in the Garden where He walked in the cool of the day. He was present in the visible cloud that guided and protected the Israelites in their journey out of Egypt. And He was present in the person of Jesus as He carried out the work of the Father. 

     So why is it an uncomfortable truth that the LORD lives here with us? Well that is because He is holy and we are not. And when things that are not holy come in to the presence of Holy, bad things happen. Our sin gets exposed for what it is. We are confronted with our weakness and called to bow in surrender. 

     But this requires humility, something that is in very short supply in our world. And it has always been in short supply! Humility requires us to say those dreaded words, "I can't do it." We admit our weakness and make ourselves vulnerable. We confess our brokenness and become whole. We confess our sin and are offered forgiveness in return. 

     The LORD is holy, totally separate from us. And yet He chooses to live with us. And at the end of time as we know it, we will live with Him with nothing to hinder our interactions and connections to each other and to Him. That is the new Heaven and new Earth.